Counterfeiting of articles such as documents, merchandise, and currency is a growing problem worldwide, and authentication of such articles has become increasingly important as counterfeiting capabilities have increased in sophistication. Recent developments have focused upon providing pre-configured security features such as 2D and 3D barcodes, indicia including engineered materials having authenticable properties such as magnetic and/or luminescent properties, RFID chips, and the like. However, such pre-configured security features often require specialized authentication systems for interrogation thereof. Further, such pre-configured security features may affect price and appearance of the articles associated with the security features.
While the pre-configured security features are often useful for retailers, banks, or other establishments, consumers are also often desirous of determining authenticity of consumer products, especially when purchasing brand-name goods that are widely subject to counterfeiting. However, consumers generally do not have access to specialized devices that are specifically adapted to authenticate pre-configured security features.
Recent develops with optical character recognition (OCR) have given rise to a variety of new services and capabilities using portable computing devices, such as smartphones and tablet computers. For example, remote bank check deposits are made possible using OCR technology and a camera of the portable computing devices. To deposit bank checks, the geometry of the bank check is recognized within a field of view of the camera. Following recognition of the bank check geometry, OCR is conducted on specific areas of the bank check to gather relevant information from the bank check. The gathered information is then employed by an electronic banking program to complete the financial transaction. While remote bank check deposit technology is very useful for financial transactions, such technology has limitations that impede broader implementation. For example, bank checks have a relatively simple, standard shape and fields subject to OCR are generally consistent between documents. Further, the bank check deposit technology fundamentally requires characters associated with the bank checks that are available for interrogation by OCR technology. Thus, such technology is not applicable to authenticity determinations based upon anything other than characters.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide systems and methods for authentication of consumer products that are readily available to consumers. In addition, it is desirable to provide systems and methods for authentication of consumer products that do not rely upon pre-configured security features and that do not require specialized devices that are required to enable authentication of such pre-configured security features. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background.